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Cristiano Ronaldo inspired Juventus to a comeback victory at Empoli in a match that wasn't without its share of controversy.
Italian Serie A: Cristiano Ronaldo (70') Empoli 1-2 Juventus
Italian Serie A: Cristiano Ronaldo (54') Empoli 1-1 Juventus
Ramón Calderón spoke at a charity event ahead of the first Clasico without Cristiano Ronaldo and explained why he believes Madrid should not have sold him.
Cristiano Ronaldo blamed club president Florentino Perez as the main reason behind his decision to leave Real Madrid this summer and sign with Italian giants Juventus.
The Portugal captain end his nine-year spell at Real Madrid with a move to Turin for a €55 million annual salary, following a reported rift with Real Madrid president Perez over a new contract.
Ronaldo told France Football in an excerpt from an interview released on Monday: "I felt that inside the club, especially on the part of the president, I was not under the same consideration as I was when I started with the club. The first four or five years there, I had the feeling of being Cristiano Ronaldo. Then, I felt it less. The look in the president's eyes told me that he no longer felt the same, that I was no longer indispensable."
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Over the summer, the clubs agreed on a transfer fee of €100m -- a Serie A record -- with the Italian club also paying €12m in ancillary fees to land the 33-year-old, who signed a four-year contract.
Reports from inside club were that Ronaldo was waiting for an offer from Real Madrid to improve upon his existing contract, which had three years left to run at an estimated €38.5m gross annually, making it worth significantly less than those of his fellow superstars -- Barcelona's Lionel Messi (€73.6m) and Paris Saint-Germain's Neymar (€66m) -- despite the Portugal captain helping Madrid extend their record haul of European Cup trophies to 13.
Ronaldo, who won 16 trophies and scored 450 goals in nine seasons at Madrid, told France Football that Perez's shift in attitude caused him to "reflect upon his exit" from Madrid and let him to eventually request to be transferred to Juve.
"When the reports began to make the rounds that I wanted to leave, I had the impression that the president was not going to stop me," Ronaldo said in the advance of the interview, which is expected to run in its entirety in the French weekly magazine on Tuesday.
Ronaldo, Real Madrid's all-time top goal scorer, left after leading the club to four Champions League titles -- including three in as many years -- and he claimed a host of personal accolades and records from his time in Spain, including four of his five Ballon d'Or awards.
Since Ronaldo's departure, Real Madrid have been winless in six La Liga starts, including a 5-1 loss in Sunday's Clasico against Barcelona.
Ronaldo also insisted his "decision to leave wasn't taken as a result" of the coaching departure of Zinedine Zidane.
"It's one of the small details that confirmed to me what I thought of the situation at the club," he said. "Rather than making me leave, it didn't hold me back."
Following Zidane's departure, Real Madrid hired Spain national team coach Julen Lopetegui, who is expected to be sacked less than three months into the season following a board of directors' meeting scheduled for later on Monday.
On Sunday, Lopetegui's father, Jose Antonio told El Mundo that the club had "stolen 50 goals from my son" after failing to find a quality replacement for Ronaldo.
"Cristiano Ronaldo was good," Jose Antonio said after Sunday's Clasico. "Was he cocky? We all have defects. But it turns out he [Ronaldo] scored 50 goals [a season]. He is missing. You are missing a prominent goalscorer. They haven't brought one, not a single one.
"There was talk of Neymar and others but no one came. They have stolen 50 goals from my son."
Ronaldo also told France Football that the move to Serie A had nothing to do with the amount of money he was offered but rather was due to the feeling he got that the Italians "really wanted him."
"If I had made my transfer about money, I would have gone to China where I would have earned five times more than here or at Real. I didn't come to Juve for the money," he said. "I made that same amount of money at Real Madrid, if not more. The difference was that at Juve, they really wanted me there. They told me and they showed me."
Ronaldo said that he feels he is deserving of the Ballon d'Or and said he would like to "win it for a sixth time and beat Lionel Messi's record."
Finally, Ronaldo said the rape allegation against him is affecting his personal life.
"Of course this story is interfering in my life. I have a partner, four children, an aging mother, sisters, a brother, a family I'm very close to," he said.
Kathryn Mayorga filed a civil lawsuit last month in Nevada claiming Ronaldo raped her in his Las Vegas hotel room in 2009. Police also reopened an investigation at her request.
Ronaldo has scored four goals in four Italian league matches since being accused of rape last month.
He again defended himself in the latest interview, saying "I know who I am and what I've done. The truth will come out in the light of day.''
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Source: espn.co.uk